A series of video tutorials was recent published illustrating the zettelkasten & Tinderbox methods used by PhD candidate Beck Tench in her literature review. I found the tutorials were very engaging and lucid, not only for the methods used and the interesting research Ms. Tench is doing, but also her very natural pedagogy.

http://www.becktench.com/blog/2018/11/12/using-zettelkasten-and-tinderbox-to-document-a-literature-review

Very interesting.
The system she is building is pretty neat.
I have attempted a similar system before. The issue is: this long process of moving ideas from pdf files to Tinderbox structures takes a lot of time...specially she has
a) to read the pdf, b) annotate it, c) take the note on paper, and d) copy the note from the papper to Tinderbox, and then structure the ideas there. This is a long and hectic process.

That is one of the reasons why I was gravitated towards QDA softwares. They can do amost everything she is trying to accomplish: from reading, taking notes, tagging (metadata/coding), to writing notes (zetel), to the graphic repesentation of the concepts (concept map), everything in the same place.

@Dellu, true. Would that QDA software were in reach. The cost is too great for non-institutional users, I'm afraid.

I believe Tench said (?) that the repetitive transfer and consolidation of notes is a memory device for her. I find that's often the case for myself.

Thank you for bringing this interesting video series to our attention, Paul. I love seeing how people use Tinderbox. It's the best way to learn the software, I think.

Steve Z.

This is great, thanks. Another researcher whose material (posts and videos) of using Tinderbox to make notes about academic texts that some might find interesting is Dominique Renauld: http://www.dominiquerenauld.net/taking-notes-with-tinderbox-1 He has quite a few posts but his website has gotten harder to navigate. He also published a free French ebook on using Tinderbox for notetaking which is a worthwhile download to skim even if you don't read the language: http://www.dominiquerenauld.net/ebooks-interactifs

This is great, thanks. Another researcher whose material (posts and videos) of using Tinderbox to make notes about academic texts that some might find interesting is Dominique Renauld: http://www.dominiquerenauld.net/taking-notes-with-tinderbox-1 He has quite a few posts but his website has gotten harder to navigate. He also published a free French ebook on using Tinderbox for notetaking which is a worthwhile download to skim even if you don't read the language: http://www.dominiquerenauld.net/ebooks-interactifs

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

Thank you for bringing this interesting video series to our attention,
Paul. I love seeing how people use Tinderbox. It's the best way to learn
the software, I think.

Steve Z.

I hope that you'll forgive me for saying so, but you're very modest Steve! Your blog posts on Tinderbox (https://welcometosherwood.wordpress.com/tinderbox/ and accompanying videos (https://vimeo.com/user14236198 remain in my view (and, it seems, also Beck Tench's) the best way of learning the application, at least to begin with.

What he says.

I second that. When I bought Tinderbox initially many years ago, I got so frustrated trying to understand it , I ended up shelving it under "Life is too short for this" and stopped using it ( It also didn't help that Tinderbox had a very basic user manual back then , which vastly improved since) . It's when I discovered later Steve's blog and read his introduction articles that it rekindled my interest In Tinderbox and some things that previously seemed completely opaque started making sense again.
You should definitely write some kind of "Tinderbox for Dummies" book Steve !

Hugh wrote:

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
Thank you for bringing this interesting video series to our attention,
>Paul. I love seeing how people use Tinderbox. It's the best way to
learn
>the software, I think.
>
>Steve Z.

I hope that you'll forgive me for saying so, but you're very modest
Steve! Your blog posts on Tinderbox
(https://welcometosherwood.wordpress.com/tinderbox/ and accompanying
videos (https://vimeo.com/user14236198 remain in my view (and, it
seems, also Beck Tench's) the best way of learning the application, at
least to begin with.

That's very kind of you, Hugh, Prion and Skywatcher. It is gratifying to know those posts and videos have aided people in using Tinderbox.

Thank you.

Steve Z.

Hugh wrote:

videos (https://vimeo.com/user14236198 remain in my view (and, it
seems, also Beck Tench's) the best way of learning the application, at

Just wanted to confirm that this is 100% true. Steve, your posts are what 1) sold me on the software; 2) convinced me it was possible to get started; and 3) inspired much of the fiddling that led to how I'm presently using it.

(I'm a big fan!)

The video attempts to show to use Tinderbox for managing zettels (slip boxes).

I skimmed through the book that Beck mentions in the video, I have a better understanding of zettels(slip boxes). But, I end up having many worries and questions, than a motivation to use zettels.

- zettels are supposed to be permanent notes
- they are different from regular reading notes because they are supposed to function outside the context of the reading material (book or article). Zettels stand by themselves. You can link them. But, they are independent ideas that don't necessarily rely on the chains of arguments presented in the reading material.
- they are short; and each of them are supposed to contain just "one idea".
- they are independent of a specific project. A zettel can be an input to a project. But, using a zettel in a specific project doesn't lead to the removal or archival of the zettel (in contrast to project notes). I personally find the distinction between zettels and project notes very difficult.
- We can write zettels after we finish reading the book or the article.
- the gist or abstract of the article can be one of the zettel notes (literature review).

I find the idea of zettel interesting. I am also very worried that it can be a productivity killer because collecting zettels might take a huge part of our research (reading). I do my reading with a specific purpose in mind. A specific project is often the purpose. If I remove that purpose from my mind, I will be engulfed for every by every book I picked up because there are many interesting ideas that I can collect, and think about forever.

I want to write a paper on XXX, I read articles and books that are relevant to XXX. Now, zettel notes are not part of the project. Every attractive idea becomes a zettel. This is dangerous because most materials are full of interesting ideas: and barely anything that cannot be useful for our future selves. We will end up collecting everything on any reading material. This is counter projective because we will be collecting notes that we don't have a specific function in mind because they might be useful in the future. I am afraid I will be just a junk of thousands of notes with little actual output.



I might have recorded my ideas in the zettel. But, those ideas of mine will evolve anyways. Surely, I will not be thinking the same in many years. The notes will be outdated, as my thinking evolves.

How are zettels better than any good database of pdf articles and books, (ideally with semantic search)?
- I am feeling that a modern advanced searching algorism (with a good database of pdf books and articles) can really replace most of what zettels are supposed to do.

I appreciate that, Beck. The feeling is mutual.

Your videos really demonstrate how you can build complex and significant note-networks with mostly Tinderbox's easier to grasp concepts. That's always been my intended message.

Steve Z.



Beck wrote:

Hugh wrote:

>videos (https://vimeo.com/user14236198 remain in my view (and, it
>seems, also Beck Tench's) the best way of learning the application, at

Just wanted to confirm that this is 100% true. Steve, your posts are
what 1) sold me on the software; 2) convinced me it was possible to get
started; and 3) inspired much of the fiddling that led to how I'm
presently using it.

(I'm a big fan!)

I think I will open another discussion because the idea of keeping zetels is beyond the main objective of the video.